Ritzman Pharmacy partners on ‘pharmacy of the future’ prototype

WADSWORTH, Ohio — Ritzman Pharmacy has entered into an agreement with Pharmacy Innovations, an affiliate of Northeast Ohio Medical University, to create a “Pharmacy of the Future” with a planned opening in January 2016. The pharmacy will be located in the NEOMED Education and Wellness Center.

At the pharmacy patients will have access to a medical fitness facility, primary care services, physical therapy, medication management, all informed by a holistic approach to wellness.

“The pharmacy will serve as an incubator of innovation, bringing elements such as telemedicine and mobile health apps and devices, to our pharmacy that are not commonly seen,” Charles Taylor, dean of the College of Pharmacy at NEOMED and president of Pharmacy Innovations, said. “It will be an extraordinary model for educating pharmacy students.”

The College of Pharmacy at NEOMED formed Pharmacy Innovations to leverage interprofessional education, collaborative partnerships and the unversity’s expertise to improve the health of urban and rural communities through advanced pharmacist services.

“Education is important to personal health, and it’s a driving principle for Pharmacy Innovations and NEOMED,” Taylor said. “By building a place that allows our patients and customers to better adhere to their prescriptions and have access to services that promote better health outcomes, we’re furthering our mission with the help of a trusted community pillar in Ritzman Pharmacy.”

The partnership was spurred by Ritzman Pharmacy, which wanted to build a practice site that is more community-oriented and pharmacist-accessible.

“Emerging health care philosophies are increasingly focused on wellness and we couldn’t be more thrilled to lead in the pharmacy experience,” George Glatcz, Ritzman Pharmacy COO, said. “We believe this pharmacy will serve as a catalyst to advance pharmacy and primary care in the community, and it wouldn’t be possible without our partners at NEOMED.”

“This will be a pharmacy of the future,” Ritzman Pharmacy CEO Eric Graf said. “We are using this model in all of our pharmacy practices, where the pharmacist will be front and center, contributing to more engaged and impactful patient-centered care.”

CVS/pharmacy expands access to naloxone in 12 states

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS/pharmacy on Wednesday expanded the availability of the opioid overdose reversal medicine naloxone in 12 states beyond Rhode island and Massachusetts — the two states where naloxone was already available without a prescription.

“Over 44,000 people die from accidental drug overdoses every year in the United States and most of those deaths are from opioids, including controlled substance pain medication and illegal drugs such as heroin,” Tom Davis, VP pharmacy professional practices CVS/pharmacy, said. “Naloxone is a safe and effective antidote to opioid overdoses and by providing access to this medication in our pharmacies without a prescription in more states, we can help save lives," he said. "While all 7,800 CVS/pharmacy stores nationwide can continue to order and dispense naloxone when a prescription is presented, we support expanding naloxone availability without a prescription and are reviewing opportunities to do so in other states.”

In addition, CVS Health is currently participating in a research project with Boston Medical Center and Rhode Island Hospital to support a demonstration project of pharmacy-based naloxone rescue kits to help reduce opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

CVS/pharmacy has also renewed its Medication Disposal for Safer Communities Program, in which it works with the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids to donate drug collection units to police departments around the country, helping communities safely dispose of unwanted medications — including controlled substances.

“Our Safer Communities program has donated more than 400 drug collection units to local law enforcement around the country since last year, resulting in almost seven tons of unused medication being collected in our communities,” Davis said. “We are pleased to continue this program with the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids and provide a permanent drug disposal solution at local police departments.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration will hold National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day on Sept. 26. On that day, hundreds of CVS/pharmacy locations around the country will host local law enforcement collection events in store parking lots from 10 a.m to 2 p.m.

Availability of postage-paid Environmental Return System envelopes at all of its pharmacies with which customers can send their unwanted medications for secure and environmentally-safe disposal;

Identification of physicians who exhibit extreme patterns of prescribing high risk drugs such as pain medications and suspension of dispensing their controlled substance prescriptions; and

Advocating at the federal and state levels to implement policy changes to curb prescription drug abuse, such as mandatory electronic prescribing of controlled substances and improved prescription drug monitoring programs.

Hillary Clinton targets medicine costs in campaign pledge

NEW YORK — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday announced plans that would reduce out-of-pocket drug costs for many American consumers should she be elected President of the United States. Clinton would also enable government agencies to negotiate price directly with pharmaceutical companies.

According to reports, one proposal would limit how much patients could have to spend out of pocket for drugs to $250 a month, or $3,000 a year.

And the Clinton proposal places spending mandates on research and development and would remove pharmaceutical advertising as a coporate tax writeoff.

Another tool to drive pharamceutical costs down proposed by Clinton includes allowing the importation of medicines from abroad, which is sure to draw criticism among the retail pharmacy industry. Allowing the importation of medicines not only circumvents community pharmacists, it also opens the closed U.S. pharmaceutical distribution system to counterfeiters.

Since 2008, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has been collecting data on websites selling medicine illegally online to United States patients. NABP has reviewed over 11,000 Internet drug outlets, finding that 96.1% of the sites reviewed operate out of compliance with U.S. pharmacy laws and practice standards.

In an effort to combat global fraud, the Association recently launched the .Pharmacy Top-Level Domain Program to provide consumers around the world a means to identify safe and legal online pharmacies and related resources. NABP will grant use of the .pharmacy domain only to legitimate website operators that adhere to pharmacy laws in the jurisdictions in which they are based and in which their patients and customers reside, so that consumers can easily find safe online pharmacies.

The news, of course, was not received well across the pharma industry.

“Secretary Clinton’s proposal would turn back the clock on medical innovation and halt progress against the diseases that patients fear most," stated John Castellani, president and CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "These sweeping and far-reaching proposals would restrict patients’ access to medicines, result in fewer new treatments for patients, cost countless jobs across the country and erode our nation’s standing as the world leader in biomedical innovation," he said.

“These proposals are driven by the false notion that spending on medicines is fueling overall health care cost growth and ignores how the current marketplace for medicines helps keep spending in check," Castellani said. "In reality, the share of health care spending attributable to medicines is projected to continue to grow in line with overall health care cost growth for at least the next decade. This is because competition and negotiation by payers result in steep discounts in medicine prices, and as a result of the current patent system 90% of medicines used are low-cost generic copies."

In the video above, posted to YouTube on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton meets and talks with a local caregiver.

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The workshops, sponsored by McKesson, have been offered by the Alexandria, Va.-based organization for more than 20 years and are slated to take place June 8-10 in Denver, Colo., and Oct. 4-6 in Boston.

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